Author Archives: CorpStrat News

The Achilles Heel for Every Employer: Time & Attendance Tracking

Portrait of business woman holding up clock and tracking employee time and attendance

Is your time and attendance policy outdated? Is your employee time tracking inaccurate?

If you answered yes to these questions, then it might be time to take a closer look at your time and attendance policy and consider solutions that can have a positive impact on your business. With accurate time tracking, you could eliminate data errors, reduce overpayments, and limit time spent on related administrative and managerial tasks.

Employee Attendance by the Numbers

Ensuring your employees are working scheduled hours should be a key business objective. Still, it can be easy to overlook the hidden costs of attendance. A recent article on the costs of time theft revealed that:

About 75 percent of U.S. businesses are affected by time theft.
43 percent of employees admit to some form of time theft.
25 percent of employees report more hours than they actually worked, more than 75 percent of the time.
45 percent of employees record time inaccurately.

Managing Various Forms of Time Theft

A common trend in time theft is “buddy punching”, which occurs when hourly, non-exempt employees, who record their time on a time clock, punch a co-worker in and out when that worker isn’t present. If a business relies on a punch time clock or paper time sheets, it can be relatively simple for one employee to record time or punch in on behalf of another employee.

There are other situations where employees may be under the impression that they are merely doing each other a favor. Your time and attendance policy should clearly state that buddy punching is strictly prohibited in the workplace.

Simple tardiness is another costly example. For instance, a non-exempt employee who is consistently 10 minutes late and works 20 days per month in a year can earn 40 hours of pay for time not worked annually. Ultimately, you are paying that employee for a week of time that was not spent creating value for your business.

Addressing attendance problems quickly so they don’t turn into long-term issues is the best course of action. Increasingly, businesses are turning to state-of-the-art identification technology to combat the time-theft trend.

How to Prevent Time Theft

Creating a formal buddy punching policy can make all the difference. Your policy can even go as far as to set specific standards for passwords that make them harder to share or input by another coworker. Moreover, educate your staff to bring awareness to the dangers of sharing passwords. Inform them that sharing their timekeeping login could also mean sharing their personal data.

Bringing it All Together

It’s almost 2019 and employers need to deploy the most advanced and compliant tools to make sure they manage their most important assets, their people! Tools like online human resource technology now fully integrate with payroll to ensure accuracy, and they eliminate instances of paying for time not worked.

We encourage you to reach out to us and we’ll provide you with a fully integrated tool like HRIS and a Payroll platform to help streamline the entire process and more.

Posting jobs
Vetting applicants
Pre-screening and offerings, onboarding
Payroll
Monitoring credentials and licensing
Tracking logins and passwords
Integrate benefits and 401k enrollment
Track PTO and vacation eligibility make schedules, etc.

Building a Culture of Giving Back

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This month our office coordinated a really special culture building event. As a team, we chose an organization that was in need of our time, money and efforts to a community where giving back is important.

We spent the afternoon at Operation Gratitude in Chatsworth California, an organization that sends nearly 300,000 individually packaged care boxes to Veterans, Wounded Heroes, and their Care Givers. Through collection drives, letter writing campaigns, craft projects, and care package assembly events, Operation Gratitude provides civilians anywhere in America a way to say “Thank You” through active, hands-on volunteerism.

What We Accomplished

Upon arrival, the CorpStrat team were given a tour of the entire facility at Operation Gratitude, where we were shown all of the various items Americans donate to the organization to send to our troops.

Then as a group, we put together care packages with necessities such as toiletries, protein bars, energy drinks, scarfs and letters written by American’s to give the troops hope during their time of service.

Operation Gratitude’s Battalion Buddy Program 2018 We even played a part in stuffing plush toy teddy bears that the organization receives from donations! Operation Gratitude provided us with the stitched shell of the bears to start off with. Next, we put all of the stuffing into the bears to ‘perfect’ them, making sure the bears had the right amount of stuffing (without ripping the seams).

Once completed, the bears were packaged with all other care goods and sent to family members who currently have someone serving. In the end, we were successful in stuffing and making about 30 bears and 100 care packages.

It’s charitable donations like these that CorpStrat employees feel inspired to drive change in our community and within our organization. Because when you build a company culture of giving back you set the stage for a purpose-filled environment that inspires passion and change.

Get Ready for Year End Open Enrollment Season

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Young employee listening to his manager explain open enrollment options

This is the time of the year where companies of all sizes struggle to get quality employee engagement during Open Enrollment period.

Even with technology offering automated benefits management tools, the challenges still persist when it comes to making it easier for employees to sign up for the benefits that are the best for them and/or their families.

To challenge this disconnect, employers and their Human Resources administrators can follow these tips in creating more employee engagement for Open Enrollment season.

Keep the initial communications on Open Enrollment simple

The very first message regarding Open Enrollment should be short and simple. This is not the time to throw everything at them all at once with boatloads of information on the varying offerings Open Enrollment provides.

Provide them with a clear message of the importance of the upcoming Open Enrollment process, varying deadlines, contact information and any upcoming meetings you have planned.

Keep the language simple and clear on the documentation of your benefits packages.

When describing what each plan is and what is covered, make sure to use bullet points in highlighting key details and while comparing and contrasting the available offerings.

Use your means of communication methods

Be mindful of your employee’s different thoughts, feelings, problems and more regarding their offerings. Communicate the differences to them and work with them to recognize and use their preferred means of communication.

While some people prefer their communication method delivered via email, you may have others who need a hard copy brochure to get your message across. They even might need something tangible they can hold in their hands like a poster or flier to bring home to their families to discuss.

Whichever way your employees prefer to receive their Open Enrollment information, make sure to change up the look-and-feel. Try to keep it fresh and engaging with design and layout changes, even as the information stays pretty much the same throughout.

Create engaging messages around the individual and/or their families

Organizations who are successful with higher employee engagement rates during Open Enrollment do a great job of cutting out the noise by highlighting what’s the most important information for an individual and/or their families in the offerings they are choosing from.

For example, employers may dive deep into what the actual costs are for employees on high deductible health plans, or, they might highlight a new voluntary benefit—added to their offering package. Addressing key components that make the benefits so attractive to add with their traditional healthcare selections.

Promoting voluntary benefits to create employee engagement

In 2016, the cost of care hit over $10,000 per person. With more-and-more employers turning to High-Deductible Healthcare plans to help offset the rising costs of healthcare and to keep premiums lower, we are seeing more people struggle to find the coverage they need as a result.

Voluntary Benefits are extremely important for employers to offer because it gives their employees the power to prepare for the worst when it comes to their healthcare. Today, a traditional healthcare plan might not be enough to support a person or their family financially in the event they get really sick.

Above all, it’s important to stay organized, keep a tight schedule and when in doubt, remember the challenge is to communicate 10x better and more frequently to get your message past all the noise.

What You Need to Know About CA Law Updating Sexual Harassment Training Requirements

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On the heels of New York State’s first deadline for new anti-harassment laws, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1343 into law on September 30, 2018.

SB 1343 amends certain sections of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act so that employers must provide harassment prevention training to all employees. Previously, California employers of only a certain size were required to provide training to managers only.

Who must comply: Employers with five or more employees – regardless of status. All employees must complete the required training.

When employers must comply: The deadline to comply with the training requirements is January 1, 2020.

How is this different than AB 1825?: AB 1825 required training for employers with 50 or more employees. In addition, the training was required for supervisors only. SB 1343 amends sections 12950 and 12950. 1 of Government Code – also known as AB 1825. SB 1343 amends the code to apply to employers with five or more employees as well as requiring ALL employers – both supervisory and non-supervisory – to complete the training.

What do employers need to do?

- Post an updated Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) posted on discrimination in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.
- Post a poster developed by DFEH regarding transgender rights in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.
- Provide sexual harassment training by the January 1, 2020 deadline:

If the training is provided after Jan 1, 2019, employers are not required to provide training by the 2020 deadline.
Non-supervisors: 1 hour within 6 months of position and every 2 years thereafter

If an employee is not hired to work 6 months, training should be provided within 30 days of 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.

If a temporary employee is hired by a temporary services employer, the temporary services employer should provide training.

Department of Fair Employment and Housing will make videos and materials available on its website. The aforementioned courses will be available in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean and any other language that is spoken by a “substantial number of non-English speaking people” as defined in Section 7296.2.

Some of these new measures may present challenges for your business, so, if you have any questions pertaining to the SB 1343 or any general compliance inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact CorpStrat.

DNA Genetic Testing and Insurance: Can They Co-Exist?

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Genomics is transforming medicine, and slowly but inevitably will be reshaping insurance. It was only a matter of time…

The secrets once buried deep, hidden in the paired strands of DNA every person carries. The mysteries of the genome (an individual’s complete set of DNA) remained veiled when the Human Genome Project began, which was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the sequence of nucleotides that made up the human DNA. Then in 2003, the international research project completed its mission, sequencing the genome.

This rapidly advancing science in forcing the insurance industry to navigate a multitude of actuarial, ethical, privacy and even reputational concerns.

The fundamental business models for life, disability, critical illness, and long-term care insurers could be at stake, given the growing existential threat of information as more people buy insurance, without disclosing their predisposition to certain diseases.

Genomics just may become the greatest disruptor to the insurance industry, the equivalent to global warming, or cybersecurity risks in the property/casualty space.

The sequencing of the human genome, DNA genetic testing (such as 23andMe), and genome editing are changing the way of how we are detecting diseases early on, treatment and even prevention through precision medicine. However, genetic testing companies are in line to influence everything from how insurance is underwritten and priced to how products are designed.

The Rise of DNA Testing

Take, 23andMe for example, which offers risk reports for multiple diseases, providing the public with intimate genetic information. Those who test positive to a serious predisposed illness could buy more coverage than they need and at an unpriced rate. And, those who test negative, could delay purchasing insurance coverage, or allow their policies to expire.

According to Nabholz, Swiss Re’s head of research and development, life and health “more than 12 million people have taken direct-to-consumer DNA tests, with almost 8 million of those tests occurring since 2016.”

“People who get a genetic test back that is unfavorable, of course, they’re going to seek to protect themselves and their family,” Nabholz goes on to say. “That’s a natural reaction.”

But, insurers will have to move cautiously. The science is relatively immature. The regulatory landscape remains uncertain with at least one state proposing a ban on using genetic information to underwrite life policies.

And then there is the matter of privacy, data ownership, and media coverage concern that would follow the rejection of applicants due to gene mutations or variants. The questions that are unanswered are as frequent as the questions yet asked.

One thing is certain: genetic testing will open doors to longevity, healthcare, prevention, and screening, and will ultimately lead to us leading healthier and longer lives.